That was a good read. I have long wondered why oil companies dont jump ahead and get their fingers into clean-energy. That's obviously where the money will be and they are well aware that the oil age is coming to a close. It's amazing that their heads are still lodged in their asses. Their denial in that article made me laugh out loud.

That was a good read. I have long wondered why oil companies dont jump ahead and get their fingers into clean-energy. That's obviously where the money will be and they are well aware that the oil age is coming to a close. It's amazing that their heads are still lodged in their asses. Their denial in that article made me laugh out loud.

2016 will be my 4th year I have kept up with the EV and solar industry on an almost every day basis. To say it's an obsession is an understatement. It only took me a few months of reading at the beginning to realize what was going to happen and was asking myself the same question. Why are the big oil companies not transitioning to the next wave of energy? Too many variables have them stuck and closed minded and they will eventually be put to death or bought out.

The way battery prices are moving, things will get crazy starting in 2020 and beyond for the transportation and utility sectors.

Here is an example of the utility side unwilling to accept the change that is coming. David Crane tried to take the company down the right path, where the future of energy is going, but shareholders (stupid shareholders) wanted nothing of it.

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"We are positioning ourselves to succeed during a prolonged period through which the traditional centralized grid-based power system co-exists with the fast-emerging, high-growth distributed generation sector," he wrote. He then went on a spending spree to make that vision a reality.

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"The new frontier of the energy business that I pushed the company into, [was] then, and [is] still now, in the long-term best interest of the company's employees, its shareholders, its customers and the earth we all inhabit. As a company that aspires to growth, there is no growth in our sector outside of clean energy; only slow but irreversible contraction following the path of fixed-line telephony," wrote Crane.

Thing I'm concerned about is that law enforcement will eventually have control over your vehicle and be able to stop it when and wherever it pleases. And by then they'll be able to track it, too. Not saying Im a conspiracy nut or anything but that is a little too much control to give away. If it CAN be abused it will be, somewhere along the way.

Thing I'm concerned about is that law enforcement will eventually have control over your vehicle and be able to stop it when and wherever it pleases. And by then they'll be able to track it, too. Not saying Im a conspiracy nut or anything but that is a little too much control to give away. If it CAN be abused it will be, somewhere along the way.

hmm...The way these cars are being built out is safety systems first, which when combined together, create autonomous driving. Not sure how the local police will be able to control the software in the car.

hmm...The way these cars are being built out is safety systems first, which when combined together, create autonomous driving. Not sure how the local police will be able to control the software in the car.

You think they're going to allow driverless cars that have the option NOT to stop for a traffic pull-over?

You think they're going to allow driverless cars that have the option NOT to stop for a traffic pull-over?

Honestly, there would be no reason to pull someone over using an autonomous car. The Autopilot feature in the Model S/X can already read the speed limit signs and keep the car at that speed or 5 over, plus keeping a certain distance of the car ahead of it. The car will control staying in lanes and switching lanes, so unless the driver takes over to drive faster than everyone else, causing a scene, the flow of traffic should stay constant.

Honestly, there would be no reason to pull someone over using an autonomous car. The Autopilot feature in the Model S/X can already read the speed limit signs and keep the car at that speed or 5 over, plus keeping a certain distance of the car ahead of it. The car will control staying in lanes and switching lanes, so unless the driver takes over to drive faster than everyone else, causing a scene, the flow of traffic should stay constant.

Yesir! It will happen, now whether or not the regulatory laws allow it to happen will be another thing....Hopefully lawmakers/special interest groups don't get in the way.

This is good to see!

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Regulators will allow automakers that can demonstrate they have a safe autonomous vehicle to apply for exemptions to certain rules as part of the new approach, which is designed to ensure government doesn’t stand in the way of technological progress.

“We are entering a new world and we know it,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Thursday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. “We have to recognize it and adjust to it.”

I lost faith in Exxon Mobil's future value. A prime reason is that Exxon's valuation is based largely on the immense untapped reserves of oil and gas it owns. And yet if future generations are to inherit a livable world, most of those reserves must stay in the ground.